75 Best Cheeses of 2015

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raw milk

Raw-milk cheese has been under scrutiny in recent years, as federal regulators have attempted to establish a safety standard for the commodity.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched a pilot program in January 2014 to do just that, but it has since plagued producers, importers, and retailers with a high number of samplings and holds on raw-milk cheese varieties produced domestically and abroad. Some in the industry have seen issues with these samplings in recent months, and many are beginning to question the program’s rules and effectiveness.

The FDA says it is using the program to learn more about how 60-day aged raw-milk cheese becomes contaminated with foodborne pathogens, and what patterns, if any, may help predict potential contamination in the future. The agency set out to collect 1,600 samples from American and foreign producers and, as of August, had collected 885. At this time, the collection and testing is slated for completion in January.

As a result of what some in the industry are seeing as ample sampling, importers and retailers have seen three- to five-week holds on imported cheeses, as well as practices that aren’t properly outlined and often changed, all with little communication from the FDA. These issues have meant holes in inventory and already-ripe cheese hitting the shelves during the industry’s busiest time of the year.

Los Angeles cheese counters could soon be a lot less aromatic, with several popular cheeses falling victim to a more zealous U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Roquefort — France’s top-selling blue — is in the agency’s cross hairs along with raw-milk versions of Morbier, St. Nectaire and Tomme de Savoie.

In early August, these cheeses and many more landed on an FDA Import Alert because the agency found bacterial counts that exceeded its tolerance level. Cheeses on Import Alert can’t be sold in the U.S. until the producer documents corrective action and five samples test clean, a process that can take months.

Of course, French creameries haven’t changed their recipes for any of these classic cheeses. But their wheels are flunking now because the FDA has drastically cut allowances for a typically harmless bacterium by a factor of 10.